2010-12-14

textbook picks

middle December thread from senseionline@yahoogroups [four separate experienced]:

...43 high schools worldwide. We all use Adventures in Japanese.

...the NYC teachers that I know use Adventures in Japanese too.

Adventures in Japanese was created by US based authors and targeted for American students

...I just started to use AIJ this year after using Kimono and Ima. The best part is the clear grammar explanations and I like the cd rom program. I am excited that many other teachers use it and I hope to share lessons. There are two websites to share curriculum for AIJ that I have found.The first one is new and has few postings yet.The second is on the website of the authors.
http://my.cheng-tsui.com/node/261 AND
http://www.punahou.edu/page.cfm?p=1528
---F Bressman, Bloomington, MN

...the Kimono series was also created in Australia and was used by many, many schools in Oregon and around the U.S. I used it for years, and enjoyed it...however it became dated, and we decided to use AiJ.


....At my high school, we use Japanese For Young People for J1.
We use AIJ for J2~J5. In J2, we only complete the first 9 chapters in AIJ2.
In J3 and J4, we complete the entire book each year (J3 finishes AIJ3 and J4 finishes AIJ4).
The J5 class uses AIJ4 along with supplemental material.

...about Japanese for Young People:
author: 公益社団法人(Public Interest Incorporated Associations)
国際日本語普及協会(AJALT, www.ajalt.org ), the same author of Busy People.

Japanese for Young People

Their chimatano nihongo is very popular, http://www.ajalt.org/rwj/

2010-12-08

old photos - postcards of Colonial Days

http://digital.lafayette.edu/collections/eastasia has about a dozen sets of images, many from Colonial Taiwan, 1895-1945. Most are collected picture postcards, but there are a few photographic slides and negatives, as well.

2010-11-21

movie title, The Uchoten Hotel

as recommended and suitable for teen viewing, The Uchoten Hotel
Details at the IMDB site, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0498587/
Viewer summary & review [excerpted from full text],
The Uchouten Hotel, is, like the name suggests ("uchouten" means something like "to be beside oneself with joy") an extremely fast-paced, incredibly hysterical comedy by Koki Mitani (who also wrote and directed "Warai no Daigaku") about a very busy New Year's Eve in the five star Avanti hotel.
The comedy varies from situational comedy to elements of typical Japanese slapstick and spiced up with unexpected turnouts and embarrassing cock-ups for the main characters.


...
AND a great film to go with this would be Cape No. 7. It is a movie about one of the many teachers who left Taiwan at the end of the war and left a girl behind and how they made a connections many years later and the relationship between the two countries. Languages used are Taiwanese, Chinese and Japanese.

all about Okinawan Studies

International Institute for Okinawan Studies (IIOS) at
University of the Ryukyus, Nishihara, Okinawa, Japan.
 
"A hub research institution in the Asia-Pacific region beyond boundaries: Looking at the global from Okinawa's local perspectives.
IIOS is an interdisciplinary institution that integrated research centers at UR, aiming to develop multifaceted and international research projects on Okinawa and related areas."

 
includes:
* Contemporary Okinawan Studies [incl. contents of the launched in 2010
Japanese language 'International Journal of Okinawan Studies' (IJOS)
http://www.iios.u-ryukyu.ac.jp/IJOS_pub/
 
*A bi-lingual (JP,EN) site. In Nov 2010 the English language section
of the site was under construction at http://www.iios.u-ryukyu.ac.jp/en/

2010-11-07

a couple of dictionary recommendations

...The Sanseido Daily Concise Dictionary comes in Japanese-English (entries are in kana--not roman letters), English-Japanese, or both in one volume, and all entries show kanji. The single-direction dictionaries fit easily in a pocket. They are about half an inch thick and contain tens of thousands of entries. The English-Japanese Sanseido goes into kanji without furigana, though, so it is of limited use to beginners. But I have found that English-Japanese dictionaries tend to be of far less use than Japanese to English. Students seldom find the right word in Japanese by looking it up in a Wa-Ei. They so often end up with the wrong sense of the word.
 
For kanji, at the beginning of the second semester of first-year Japanese I teach students to use Nelson's Japanese-English Character Dictionary (the original "classic" version with the red cover--not the newer blue-cover edition out of the University of Hawaii that mangled Nelson's work).

2010-10-20

fonts for PC and MAC (kyoka shotai)

free kyokashotai font online for download:

kyokashotai 教科書体 (Windows & Mac)
http://ja.cooltext.com/Download-Font-%E6%95%99%E7%A7%91%E6%9B%B8%E4%BD%93

seikaishotai 正楷書体 (Windows & Mac)
http://ja.cooltext.com/Download-Font-%E6%AD%A3%E6%A5%B7%E6%9B%B8%E4%BD%93

These sets not only have all joyo kanji(常用漢字)but also have many kanji that are not included in joyo kanji.

2010-10-18

how to write Japanese essays in Japanese style

"Jouzu na kansou-bun no kaki-kata," https://www.msu.edu/course/asn/491/

It's written for advanced level college students, but Japanese college students might benefit, too.
For high school students, you'd probably have to modify a bit. [M. Endo]
 
Bibliography
 
Thomas McAuley, 2010. Why Can't Japanese Writers Stick to the Point?
http://www.wreac.org/japanportal/thoughts-on-japan/367-why-cant-japanese-writers-stick-to-the-point

Thomas McAuley, 2010. Japanese Writers Do Stick to the Point!
http://www.wreac.org/japanportal/thoughts-on-japan/368-japanese-writers-do-stick-to-the-point

Thomas McAuley, 2010. How Japanese Writers Make the Point
http://www.wreac.org/japanportal/thoughts-on-japan/369-how-japanese-writers-make-the-point

author's blog, http://www.wreac.org/japanportal/thoughts-on-japan

Additional material

Akiko Takagi, 2001. The Need for Change in English Writing Instruction in Japan
http://www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/articles/2001/07/takagi

Bern Mulvey, 1997. Japanese and English Rhetorical Strategies: A Contrastive Analysis
http://www2.aasa.ac.jp/~dcdycus/LAC97/rhetoric.htm

Tad Matsunaga, 1999. Contrastive Rhetoric and Japanese English Students' Expository Writing Style. ERIC, (ED436102)
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/recordDetail?accno=ED436102 

2010-10-16

what it means to be Ainu now

One craftsman's perspective comes from 2/13/2010 interview (about 25 minutes & 4 minutes of Host commentary as introduction):
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrNkZHyGx9I&feature=player_embedded

2010-10-04

video - "o miai" in 6 minutes

6-min clip on Omiai by two popular comedians Jichoo Kachoo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeAE1R4SBMg

The Omiai scene is funny but the setting is very traditional.

2010-09-30

names into Katakana (online utilities)

Katakana names: http://japanesetranslator.co.uk/your-name-in-japanese
 
or http://name.reader.bz/
The advantage here: you can copy and paste the results (not in image form).

2010-09-28

photo lives in Japan, the DeAi project 10th anniversary

Nearly ten years have passed since the Japan Forum published
"Deai: The Lives of Seven Japanese High School Students"
(www.tjf.or.jp/deai), introducing real-life portraits of seven
Japanese high school students through photos, stories, and videos.

For Takarabako No. 25 we returned to three of these students
and asked them to give us the sequel to their high school story,
sharing their thoughts and experiences as they charted their way
in life. http://www.tjf.or.jp/takarabako

For junior high and high school students, these stories offer useful
hints as they consider how to continue their education and choose
their careers, and what kind of lives they want to lead.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Their additional stories, photos and movies can be viewed at the "Click Japan" website
in Japanese, English and Chinese.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
We uploaded their stories, photos and movies including the contents that we couldn't put in Takarabako at
"Click Japan" website. You can read them in Japanese, English and Chinese at the site.
http://www.tjf.or.jp/clicknippon/en/jcn (See "Resource No.25")

2010-09-16

reading help (fluent speaking, but weak readers)

...for students who are fairly fluent speakers, but not so good at reading.
http://www.manythings.org/japanese/reading/Japanese
Reading Practice with nearly 148,000 sentences... sorted by the kanji frequency order found in Jim Breen's kanjidic

日 一 国 会 人 年 大 十 二 本 中 長 出 三 同 時 政 事 自 行 社 見 月 分 議 後 前 民 生 連 五 発 間 (More ...).

2010-09-06

poetry in audio format

Tanikawa Shuntaro himself reads one of his most most popular poems, http://www.chocolatmag.com/voice/

others? Perhaps there are also stories in audio format (such as those read by volunteers who record requested titles for visually impaired people)?

movies & TV favorites for H.S. students of Japanese

Movies: the various Ghibli (Miyazaki Hayao) anime, Ping Pong, Kokoyakyu (spelling of English title), Train Man, The Prince of Tennis, Hula Girls, Swing Girls.
Also the documentary, Japanland (Karin Muller).
 
TV series (as of 9/2010), as found on Amazon, http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_9_8?url=search-alias%3Ddvd&field-keywords=japanese+tv+series&sprefix=japanese

2010-09-04

culture textbook for elementary school students

from SENSEIONLINE, Fri Sep 3, 2010

culture books on Asia for kids
<> Floating lanterns & Golden Shrines
<> 40 activites to learn about Japan (or something like that).
<> an Iowa book called "Sweet Corn and Sushi". It's a children's story book written in English and Japanese (but the reading level for both languages is upper elementary). It's the story about an American soldier who had been stationed in Japan right after WWII, but then went back to Iowa to become a farmer. When a disaster hit Yamanashi prefecture in Japan, he rounded up his farmer friends and sent the Japanese people some help. Years later when the floods of '93 hit Iowa, the Japanese people of Yamanashi sent help to the people of Iowa. It's a beautiful book about the ties between two countries.

<> "My Japan" by Etsuko Watanabe, and "I live in Tokyo" by Mari Takabayashi, http://www.amazon.com/My-Japan-Etsuko-Watanabe/dp/1933605995
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6226681-my-japan

http://www.amazon.com/I-Live-Tokyo-Mari-Takabayashi/dp/0618077022 and http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/921351.I_Live_in_Tokyo

<> "Hashi No Mochikata" by Michiko Konagai, http://www.ehonnavi.net/ehon00.asp?NVKB=E00&no=16236
<> "Asobi No Osama Zukan7: Tabemono", http://www.ehonnavi.net/ehon00.asp?no=9074
<> "Lovely Hekimen 12kagetsu", http://www.natsume.co.jp/book/index.php?action=show&code=004836
<> "Pocket Monster Origami Collection" by Kanata Miru, http://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/htm/4091016154.html

<>Yoko, http://www.amazon.com/Yoko-Rosemary-Wells/dp/0786803959
is about a Japanese-American cat that goes to school and always brings lunches that her mom packs for her. The other kids (animals?) tease her about her red bean ice cream and sushi and she's always embarrassed. Later in the school year, the class has an international food day and everyone has to bring a food that represents their culture. The book is more about tolerance of other cultures, but it's about a Japanese main character.

<> Allen Say's autobiographical picture books:
Grandfather's Journey (coordinate with US History, Japanese immigration, etc.)
A Tree of Cranes (read at Christmas time)
Tea with Milk (cultural comparisons)
The Bracelet (about WWII Japanese internment camps but not too harsh for elementary students)

<> Akiko Hayashi books, http://www.amazon.com/Childrens-Picture-Books-Japan/lm/3MK7OPYENYTH1

<> The story of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes is used in talking about Hiroshima. There is even a video to go along with this book, too.

<> "How My Parents Learned to Eat" is about introducing Japanese food and chopsticks.

<> To show Japanese culture: the Shiba Inu books and the illustrator Akiko Hayashi's "Kon to Aki", which is now available in English! Many of her very cute books have beentranslated into English.

<> "Baseball Saved Us" is another excellent book about the Internment camps.
<> For high school, "Snow Falling on Cedars" is both a good book and an excellent film on the subject of the J-A experience during and after the war.


------SEE ALSO, lending library in USA: http://www.jflalc.org/?act=tpt&id=292

2010-08-23

the story of 'gunkan shima' (Nagasaki-ken)

Hashima Island (also known as 'battleship island' for it's size, shape and cement sea walls): From 1905 until the coal mining ended in 1974 it was a unique community; quoting http://www.jamaipanese.com/hashima-island-documentary/

Except for the former resident who guides the movie crew, most of the 15 minute documentary is narrated in perhaps Swedish (subtitles in English).


In 1916 the largest concrete structures in all of Japan were built on Hashima Island to help protect it's inhabitants from typhoons and at it's peak in 1959 the population was over 5000 or 1,391 people per 10,000 square metres the highest population density ever recorded in the world. Please take the time to have a look at an awesome documentary video I have embedded below that tells the history of Gunkanjima from someone who grew up there as a child.

[vimeo URL, http://vimeo.com/2044441]


A trip to this island would make an amazing out of the box location to visit if/when I eventually make it to Japan, I wonder if I'd survive the trip by boast to get there though. Would you want to visit Battleship Island?
Official Website (Japanese); Hashima Island on Wikipedia

2010-08-22

Peace Declarations - Hiroshima & Nagasaki ceremonies

---surely is one more element in learning the languge & society of Japan.
 
=-=-= Hiroshima Peace Declaration
6 August 1945, the fist atomic bombs dropped in Hiroshima, Japan. 65years later, today the Mayer of Hiroshima declared the Peace Declarationat the Peace Ceremony. Here is the full text of Declaration, and you canget PDF at http://www.city.hiroshima.lg.jp/www/contents/0000000000000/1110537278566/index.html 

The direct link to the pdf in English is http://www.city.hiroshima.lg.jp/www/contents/0000000000000/1110537278566/files/Peace_Declaration_2010.pdf
  [excerpt]
PEACE DECLARATION August 6, 2010
In the company of hibakusha who, on this day 65 years ago, were hurled,without understanding why, into a beyond ...
 
=-=-= Nagasaki Peace Declaration from August 9, 2010, delievered by Mayor Taue Tomihisa.
http://www1.city.nagasaki.nagasaki.jp/peace/english/appeal/ 
 
  [excerpt]
This year Nagasaki's peace ceremony has commenced with a song by hibakusha,survivors of the atomic bombing. The song was full of the strong hope that that fateful day must never berepeated. On August 9, 1945 at 11:02 a.m., a single atomic bomb dropped by a UnitedStates military aircraft devastated Nagasaki instantly. The intense heatrays, blast winds, radiation, and ceaseless fires.... They claimed theprecious lives of 74,000 people, while inflicting deep physical and mentalwounds on those who narrowly escaped death...

2010-08-06

becoming a Japanese citizen these days

This hotlink comes from the newsletter of Sapporo's Arudou Debito
This may perhaps be of interest to students of Japanese language & society!
 
===================================
http://www.turning-japanese.info/

...blog with details about taking Japanese citizenship, in English, written by other fellow naturalized Japanese
 
Late last June a naturalized Japanese friend of mine set up a website devoted solely to offering information to people interested in taking out Japanese citizenship (or of course for those who just have a curiosity about what's involved). Written by people who have actually gone through the process...  

===================================
Topics thus far covered there:

High-fidelity MS Word and OpenDocument Japan naturalization forms
FAQ: Which is more difficult: permanent residency or naturalization
Comparison: The U.S. Citizenship Test on Video
Misinformation: justlanded.ru: Japanese citizenship
The three types of naturalization
Misinformation: eHow: How to become a Japanese Citizen
FAQ: Do you have to speak perfect Japanese to naturalize?
FAQ: How much paperwork is involved?
FAQ: Can I have an official Japanese name even if I don't naturalize?
What the Ministry of Justice website says about naturalization
Analyzing the Application Procedures
FAQ: Do you have to be a permanent resident or special permanent resident to naturalize?
Your newly acquired right to vote: Using the web to know your candidates
FAQ: Do you have to take a Japanese name if you naturalize?
FAQ: How much does it cost to naturalize?
Becoming Japanese is becoming more expensive for Americans
Japanese "Naturalization Permission Application Guidance" booklet
Renouncing Former Nationalities
My first visit to the Nationality Section

2010-07-14

resource, Daily Living in Japanese (80 pages)

S. Wakabayashi and S. Renovich produced "Daily Living in Japanese" through Japan Foundation's Fellowship program.
It is a collection of activities for beginner students, http://sites.google.com/site/nihongobc/:

Daily Schedule
My Week
Invitation
Planning An Event, and
Creative Works
 
Find the file at the Nihongo BC website in the Japanese 11 resources.
Some of the activities are suitable for lower levels. It's about 80 pages long.

2010-07-03

summer lion dance, shishimai

Friends in Fukui-ken created a YouTube channel recently. They've started with two movies, about 10 minutes each (YouTube limit on ordinary accounts):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTIFjCIAllc [troupe based in Mie, but traveling their annual circuit of blessing]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GikgN-nSus [lots of commentary in the ?Mie-ken dialect; juggling at 6'45"]

2010-06-25

newspapers IN the Japanese language

http://faculty.palomar.edu/ftachibana/newspaper.htm

eBook reader - putting Japan's literature on Kindle

from February Senseionline, ...a site about "青空文庫 to Kindle" that explains how to convert horizontal pdf ZIP file to vertical pdf file.,
http://ascii.jp/elem/000/000/494/494847/ ... 「Amazon Kindle 2」を日本語化.

2010-06-24

online Japanese from JPN Foundation

At the site http://nihongo-e-na.com you can find websites and online tools to suit your own needs by using search categories such as 'Reading,' 'Grammar' or 'Dictionary/Translation.'

2010-06-18

online Japanese language learning; Katakana idea

via Senseionline 18 June 2010:
...for people who would like to learn Japanese and aren't conveniently located by an institution or
a friend that will teach it to them, this might be just the information they were looking for:

*UAB NihongoCast,* http://www.uab.edu/foreignlang/nihongocast/, the online version of Japanese 101 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, a joint production of the UAB Departments of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Communication Studies, and Theatre, taught by Tim Cook of Georgia Public Broadcasting's *Irasshai.*

=-=-= earlier in 2010 via Charles Kelly [authentic Katakana practice],
...read titles of English programs in the TV guide... These movie titles have dropped the "the" and "a" in the katakana. http://www.manythings.org/flvb/movies1.html

On the other hand, these movie titles have katakana is almost exactly the same as in English. http://www.manythings.org/flvb/movies2.html

2010-05-12

Internment 1941, FW: NPR story

From the national public radio show Wednesday afternoon,
 
[opening text of the story]
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, the U.S. government took action at home. People of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast were forcibly removed from their homes and taken to desolate inland areas of the U.S. Some 120,000 men, women and children were placed in internment camps for the duration of World War II.
 
[---another facet of Japanese language, culture, diaspora]

grammar shown in video segments of "mame shiba"

The Mameshiba videos, http://dogatch.jp/anime_kids/mameshiba/top.html

This list shows chapters and grammar patterns to which they
apply. Many of them work as examples of ウn desuイ as well.

Chpt 15 edamame ュ relative clauses
Chpt 16 Mameshiba theme song ュ te-kureru, toki, vocabulary
Chpt 17 ュ Green peas - tte for reporting speech
Chpt 18 ュ cashew nuts - te-shimau
- coffee bean ュ transitive/intransitive verbs
- peanut ュ to conditional
Chpt 20 ュ boiled beans ュ honorifics / humble speech
Chpt 22 ュ tiger bean ュ vocabulary

We also used the ウKotoba no ojisanイ videos, although they are longer and a
bit harder to understand. For Genki, I found they worked well in the following chapters.

Chpt 13 ュ potentialsュ ra nuki, /www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO6bqBxs0oQ

Chpt 14 ュ counters, www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6FZGX-Lsk8&NR=1

Chpt 20 honorifics, www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-mV-YrgrX0&feature=related

2010-05-01

English support for ERIN GA CHOSEN (exchange stu. in JP)

the English website for "Erin's Challenge! I Can Speak Japanese" is now available.
http://erin.ne.jp/ or http://www.jpf.go.jp/e/urawa/e_j_rsorcs/erin
 
- 228 video clips will show natural Japanese conversation and contemporary Japanese culture
- Many new contents including original 41 video clips of "Learning Onomatopoeia via Manga" and 633 pictures of "Let's see", a section to introduce Japanese culture.
- Exercises with 2,161 questions will fully support Japanese-language learning.
- Users will be certified as Grand Master with 30 consecutive correct answers to Culture Quiz and can virtually experience Japanese culture in "Let's try" simulation games for 25 lessons
- When users register as members, they can record their study development,

2010-04-04

sakura 2010

at the temple of Daihou-ji in Echizen-city (Fukui-ken; about 35 degrees north latitude)

2010-03-21

good reading - to teach Japanese language

--see also the back issues!
Breeze #40, http://www.jflalc.org/index.php?act=tpt&id=87

translation to English of Tohsaku-sensei article (appearedin Breeze #37)
http://www.jflalc.org/index.php?act=tpt&id=453

2010-03-04

popular TV commercial in Japan, early 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtr1k4E-dVY

2010-02-26

online --Ainu Komonjo

The Ainu Komonjo (18th & 19th century records) -- Ohnuki Collection can be freely viewed at:
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/EastAsian.JapanRice

The UWDC has scanned Professor Emiko Ohunki-Tierney's collection of books on the Ainu by the Japanese. The books focus on the Sakhalin Ainu, since the books were acquired by Ohnuki-Tierney at the time she was studying them. The books are extremely rare and are either hand-written, with illustrations hand-drawn, or are wood block prints. Many of these early documents were authored by explorers and scholars at the order of the Bakufu or the Matsumae clan...these documents often include a number of detailed maps, including the topography and Ainu place names.

2010-02-13

Valentine's Day in Japan 2010

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123635365
Chocolate-giving is a ritual among everyone in Japan from schoolchildren to senior citizens. But the country has developed its own way of celebrating the erstwhile day of romance, and the custom is still evolving.
[www.npr.org on Friday, Feb. 12, 2010]

2010-02-06

online Japanese in Manga & Anime

The Japan Foundation, Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai is pleased to
announce that they have launched a new website
"Japanese in Anime & Manga," http://anime-manga.jp.

-update April 2010:
The Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Institute of Kansai opens "Nihongo-e-na", a new portal for learning Japanese:http://nihongo-e-na.com/

2010-02-05

online reading Japanese texts

websites for reading practice, or folktale (translation/creation) purposes.

http://www.e-hon.jp/index.htm デジタル絵本サイト

http://www.alps.or.jp/match/shibai/bknumber.html 紙芝居の部屋

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/ SurLaLune Fairy Tales (in English, but useful for folktale translation)

http://www.americanfolklore.net/ American Folklore (in English)

http://www.aozora.gr.jp/index.html 青空文庫 (offers "old" books/stories that have passed "copyright protection" period)

2010-01-29

online Japanese practice - produced by Duke, "renshuu.org"

http://www.renshuu.org is a free Japanese study site that was originally made for Duke University and has been running for several years. It offers personalized and dynamic quizzing for several widely used textbooks.

There are quiz methods for both kanji characters and vocabulary. The personal schedule tool helps students to study their weakest areas.

The grammar library has about 350 grammar expressions, hundreds of model sentences, and areas for students to practice using the grammar and give/receive feedback from others.

2010-01-26

guided, stepped reading Japanese texts

From senseionline@yahoogroups today [digest 3129]

The "Read Real Japanese" books are nice, too--but they provide English translations where the "Readers" do not.

One of the Graded Readers at Whiterabbitpress.com: